IJCFIARFS Chapter 42

Xie Youzhou had quietly made over 10 million US dollars by taking orders on the dark web, assisting many rivals of the Ruan family. This success effectively created substantial startup capital for Nianzhi Group in its early entrepreneurial stages!

No external investments were necessary, which helped avoid the hidden dangers of outside interference in the future.

As for those group companies considered thorns in the side of the Ruan family, they experienced rapid development. Not only could they gradually compete with the Ruan Group, but they could also nibble away at the Ruan Group during critical moments.

The decline of the Ruan family was unstoppable.

It could be said that Xie Youzhou was killing three birds with one stone, creating a win-win situation for all parties involved.

The Ruan family had relied on the cooperation project provided by Hortez to temporarily halt their decline, but this was merely a stopgap. It would take at least six months for the results of the project to genuinely benefit the Ruan Group.

Yet, Xie Youzhou’s plans would not stop or be delayed.

What was particularly amusing was that even though the Ruan Group’s soft notice against the hacker FL was plastered all over the dark web, it garnered no attention whatsoever.

Unbeknownst to them, the once-aloof Ruan Group had become a laughingstock on the dark web, while hacker FL had transformed into an idol worshiped by the entire community.

Ruan Yanshun was so enraged that he could do nothing about it; the flesh on his face visibly sagged in despair.

On this day, Ruan Yanshun finally returned to the Ruan family after spending a whole month at the Ruan Group. He convened a real family meeting with Mr. Ruan, Ruan Yanzheng, and Ruan Yanwei.

Ruan Jiaojiao finished her date with Hortez and returned to the Ruan house around eight o’clock.

Her cheeks were pink, her eyebrows soft with affection, and her steps light and cheerful. Upon entering the hall, she placed a finger on her lips, signaling the servant not to blurt out, “Miss, you are back.”

“Don’t make any noise; I want to surprise Grandpa and the others,” Ruan Jiaojiao whispered, lowering her voice.

She carried the clay dolls she had made for her family behind her back and crept up the stairs.

The servants wanted to intervene but didn’t dare. They cautiously followed a few steps behind and lowered their voices. “Miss, Miss, Master, they’re having a meeting…”

“What about Fourth Uncle and Fifth Uncle?”

“They’re in a meeting too…”

Isn’t that just a family meeting? I’m a member of this family as well,” Ruan Jiaojiao said with an innocent yet mischievous smile.

“If you ruin my surprise, you’re done.”

The servant stiffened, quickly stopped, and bowed their head.

Ruan Jiaojiao smiled, looked away, and lightly stepped onto the stairs, soon reaching the third floor.

She moved cautiously, planning to surprise her grandfather, uncle, Fourth Uncle, and Fifth Uncle, but suddenly paused beside the door.

The words inside were clear, causing her expression to change slightly.

“This Xie Youzhou is truly capable, no worse than Hortez!”

“The boss is right… cough… cough cough, this Xie Youzhou has a great family background and powerful abilities. It’s quite rare to see someone so up-and-coming. I didn’t expect him to build such an internet empire in just a few months. While it may be premature to call it an ’empire,’ it has the potential,” Mr. Ruan wheezed heavily.

In theory, it takes about ten months for a company to go public, from establishment to listing, but no one has ever done it in just a few months!

Not even a genius could manage that.

The fastest group to go public in history took sixteen months, but if Mr. Ruan was correct, if Xie Youzhou continued to develop at this pace, listing in ten months would not be a dream.

Xie Youzhou was simply a genius among geniuses.

“It’s a pity that such a genius loyally protects Lin Zhiyu every day, effectively working against our Ruan family!”

“What genius! If you ask me, it’s better to eliminate him directly, haha,” Ruan Yanwei chuckled, his pale face adorned with heavy dark circles under his eyes.

After months of self-destruction, Ruan Yanwei had completely fallen apart.

“How could we kill him with the Xie family behind him?” Ruan Yanzheng interjected, his tone sensible even though he yearned to tear Xie Youzhou and Lin Zhiyu apart.

“If it were the Ruan family in its heyday, it wouldn’t be impossible to give it a try, but now? Can we withstand the Xie family’s revenge?!”

“Ahem…” Mr. Ruan coughed like an old bellows, “Back then? I… I was optimistic about him and Jiaojiao being together. Whether as the son-in-law of our Ruan family or an equal opponent, they would be an incredibly powerful combination…”

“And Xie Youzhou’s roots are growing; it will also help us completely open up the Chinese market…”

“But Hortez is also formidable; he is one of the best in country M and more suitable for capital than Xie Youzhou.”

“Dad, it’s pointless to discuss this now. We must find a way to deal with these people as soon as possible.”

“…”

Ruan Jiaojiao returned to her bedroom in a daze, not quite remembering how she got there. When she came to her senses, she immediately opened her phone and searched for Xie Youzhou’s photos, but found nothing.

Feeling a bit restless and uncomfortable, she sat blankly on the bed. Suddenly, an idea struck her, and she opened the chat with Hua Yutang in her address book.

“Brother Yutang, do you have any childhood photos? I want to see what you looked like as a kid.”

Hua Yutang replied almost instantly, excitedly saying, “Yes, yes! Please wait a moment!”

In his eagerness, he called his mother and asked her to dig out his childhood photos, take pictures, and send them back to him.

After waiting for over ten minutes, Ruan Jiaojiao finally received a flood of photos.

She looked through them and typed, “Brother Yutang, these are so cute! Do you have any photos from when you were around fifteen? You can also send pictures with other friends; I want to see them.”

“Yes, yes!”

Hua Yutang quickly searched through a locked folder of old photos and sent all of them to Ruan Jiaojiao.

As she browsed through the images, Ruan Jiaojiao began to worry that she might never learn what Xie Youzhou looked like, especially since Hua Yutang likely hadn’t taken pictures with him. However, she was stunned when she came across one particular photo.

The boy with dark blue eyes standing next to Hua Yutang was incredibly handsome, even with his childish face. Her heart skipped a beat, and she found herself unwilling to accept the thoughts forming in her mind.

Slowly and hesitantly, Ruan Jiaojiao typed: “Brother Yutang, who is the person next to you in this photo?”

He… She was particularly anxious that Ruan Jiaojiao might feel upset, so Hua Yutang initially hesitated to mention Xie Youzhou’s name.

But he didn’t want to lie to her.

“He… he is Xie Youzhou.”

Unbeknownst to Xie Youzhou, Ruan Jiaojiao, who was far away in Country M, was trying to “understand” him. If he knew, he might have burned incense all night to ward off any bad luck.

Meanwhile, Xie Youzhou had agreed to his subordinates’ request for a team-building event and booked the largest private room at Jingcheng Xiaozhu.

Though it was fun to take his team out to eat, Xie Youzhou didn’t drink a drop of alcohol, and the others dared not press him to drink either.

After the party, he immediately drove to the Huaxia Biochemical Institute to wait for his brother to finish work.

Lin Zhiyu spotted Xie Youzhou the moment he stepped outside, and a warm feeling washed over him, causing him to smile involuntarily.

“How was work today?” Lin Zhiyu asked.

“Very good, very smooth,” Xie Youzhou replied, casually resting his arm next to Lin Zhiyu’s.

“Brother, how about you? Did you enjoy your meal?” Lin Zhiyu inquired, his tone light.

“Of course,” Lin Zhiyu said with a smile.

As they walked slowly, their footsteps lit, the shadows they cast under the streetlights swayed in the warm, dim glow. They were each other’s best comfort, enough to relieve all fatigue and confusion.

—

After returning home, Lin Zhiyu placed a butterfly-shaped leaf he had picked up on the way into the pages of a book and then set it on the top shelf.

“Brother, you’re back!” Lin Zhaoqiu exclaimed, having waited up for Lin Zhiyu. She yawned and rushed into the house.

“Brother, I need your help with something.”

“What is it?” Lin Zhiyu asked, lowering his arm and feeling a sense of unease wash over him for some reason.

Lin Zhaoqiu didn’t notice anything amiss with Lin Zhiyu; she simply picked up a test paper and handed it to him.

“Brother, this is Zhao Hua’s test paper. She keeps making mistakes on this type of question. I’ve tried many methods to teach her, but she still doesn’t get it. Can you take a look?”